Wada introduced as an Oriole

As you know by now, the Orioles announced yesterday the signing of left-handed starter Tsuyoshi Wada to a two-year deal with an option for 2014.

Wada’s control is what ultimately sold Baltimore on giving him a deal –despite a mid-80s fastball — and executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette likened the Japanese lefty’s style to former Oriole Scott McGregor.

I’ll have a full story on Orioles.com later, but here’s Duquette’s opening statement on Wada. The newest Oriole also did an admirable job in speaking his brief opening remarks in English.

DUQUETTE:

“We are excited to have Tsuyoshi join our team and we’re honored to have him join our pitching staff. Tsuyoshi has been one of the top pitchers in baseball the past two years having won 33 games in Japan. Last year he was the MVP, the Most Valuable player of the Japanese Baseball League in 2010, which is an extraordinary accomplishment. He started his career he was the rookie of the year for the great Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh. And he was also a four-time all star.

He has excellent control and he has command of a fastball, a curveball, a slider and a changeup. And he is someone our scouts had targeted and seen extensively the last couple years in Japan. Some clubs would be concerned about his velocity. But when I saw that he could throw his breaking pitches and his changeup over when he is behind in the count, to both left and right-handed batters, I felt like he had everything to contribute as a starting pitcher for the Orioles.”

Wada, who used one of his agents –Yoshi Hasegawa of Octagon Sports– for most of the interpreting, opened the press conference by speaking English on his own.

“My name is Tsuyoshi Wad,” he said. ” I’m from Shimane Japan. I played for Fukoka SoftBank Hawks. I would like to thank you, Baltimore Orioles organization to give me this opportunity. I was dreaming to play Major League Baseball since I was a college (pitcher). So this is a very special moment. I very (much) look forward to pitch at Camden Yards. Thank you.”

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